Rulebook
Preface Crypto Kingdom is a community-built MMO RPG game. It is developed in a rapid version launch principle, so that the Version 1: Genesis that started in 2014-10-19, only included limited functionality and no actual gaming software. When players join the game, they will develop the required functionalities themselves, and new versions of the game are introduced after every 4-8 weeks. The development thread in Bitcointalk can be found in: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=819073.0 The development IRC channel is: #crypto-kingdom @ irc.freenode.net When reading the rules, the texts written in bold are important mechanisms typically related to the game's obligations towards the characters. The paragraphs in italics are forward-looking statements that are meant to ease planning but are not binding and may be changed for technical or other good reasons. Time Game time Basics First real-day of the game was 2014-10-10 and that corresponds to game year A.D. 1400. Every passing real-day increases the game-year by 2. The characters are calculated born 15 or more years before the day of their registration (depending of the player's actual age and the character's seniority) and buildings constructed the day of their registration. Ancient era Definition The characters gain age but don't get old at all during the first 200 game-years. This period from A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1599 is called the Ancient era. Subdivision Everything that happens during the Ancient era, will be referred Ancient later in the game. This is a great honor, and one that cannot be granted once the Ancient era ends. Ancient is subdivided to the following categories: * Very Ancient: in the 1300s or older (prior to the establishment of His Majesty's rule in 1400) * Most Ancient in the 1400s * Ancient in the 1500s * Modern (or whatever name the era will gain) in the 1600s Very Ancient What has happened, created, come into existence, built, etc., in the 1300s and earlier, prior to the establishment of His Majesty's rule in 1400, is referred to as Very Ancient. Much/Most Ancient Although Most Ancient sounds like older than Very Ancient, in the game it actually means younger. The title is officially Much Ancient, but after Dogecoin started to use it for vulgar (= common, mundane) purposes, Most Ancient is preferred by the new, slick characters. Both terms literally refer to "something younger than His Majesty's rule, but older than the first online version of the game". Most Ancient is also a safe way to address someone, or talk about something that you know to be ancient, but are not sure how ancient it is. It cannot be taken badly by characters who are Very Ancient (although: saying Very when it is due is an even higher respect, but sounds very ''cheap if you mistakenly address someone as Very Ancient when he in fact is not). The ones who merely are Ancient, like to hear it as long as it is not known to the speaker that they are just Ancient. In the Kingdom telling your age is like coming to first-name terms, and addressing someone as Ancient (instead of Most Ancient) shows casual intimacy. Controversy With buildings, events and items the difference between Very (-1399), Much (1400-1473) and "Just" Ancient (1474-1599) is clear. With characters, there exists several ones who were born in one sub-era and created in another. Whether the birth or creation defines the sub-era, is a matter of debate. Everyone is unanimous that characters created in the 1600s and later are not ancient, no matter when they were born. One school is also a proponent that no one or nothing can convincingly be called Ancient until it is 100 years old at least. The King The King was born in 1366 and is clearly Very Ancient by birth. But since he may only be referred in the game by his Kingship, which marks the change of era from Very Ancient to Much Ancient, it is highly incorrect to refer to him as "our Very Ancient King". Correct way is to use Much or Most Ancient. The King uses the name-title "HM The King", abbreviated "HM". The subjects are encouraged to just use King when speaking among themselves. Nobles in public places should refer to the King with more honorifics (such as "HM" or "The Most Ancient King"). The King is the 4th oldest character in the game, junior only to The Magus, Dr. Choo and Earl of Armagnac, so it is proper to call him Most Ancient by all the others. When addressing directly, it is easy. Regardless of rank, everybody addresses the King first as "Your Majesty". When the King has granted the permission to speak, further address is "Sir," until the audience is over. Ancient Everything that is not very ancient, or much/most ancient (or Legendary - see below), yet is happening in Ancient era, is simply Ancient. Legendary This is a rare honor that may only be granted by the general population, not by the King, the Town council, or nobles. It may be conferred upon buildings, characters or other game items, when they really deserve it. It is exceptional to become a legend when you die, it is most exceptional to become one while you still live. Economic era ''From A.D. 1600 (2015-1-18 0:00 GMT) onwards, the passing of time will get slower. 1 real-day will correspond to 1 game-month that has 24 days. Thus one real-year will be about 30 game-years. At this point the characters will begin to age and eventually die. The average lifespan for a low-level character who does not have access to good food and drinks, etc. is about 40 years. The rich people may expect to live 50-80 years though there is great variance when sickness starts to take over, after which the remaining years are counted. Characters will know if their state is Vigorous, Middle-Aged, Old or Ailing.' Resources XMR The game currency is Monero (XMR), subdivided to 1,000,000 moneritos (m). It is possible to load the character account with moneros by sending them to the administrator. The administrator in charge of this is Earl of Armagnac, who then notifies HM of the deposits and they will be credited to the database. XMR cannot be stolen, and is therefore safe regardless of quantity owned. Gold Nature and uses One Gold represents 1 gram of gold. This is the smallest unit of gold and no fractional gold exists. In Version 1: Genesis, only plating buildings with gold is possible. In Version 2: Ancients ''and later, more uses will be introduced. Gold is practically indestructible with a very high recovery rate: even gold leaf used to plate wood that is plating stone palaces, and gold thread used in clothes can be 90% recovered when the item in question is destroyed. Furthermore, the prestige value of gold is foremost in the items, not so much in the gold in the vault. The holdings of gold, regardless of form, play an important role in the game administration through Town council, and in the economy. Gold cannot be stolen, and is therefore safe regardless of quantity owned. '''This may change in later versions of the game, earliest in ''Version 4: Economy, which includes the algorithm for calculating the safety of storage. Creation Gold comes into existence during the Ancient era (first 100 real-days of the game) at a pace of 10,000 gold/day. Therefore the amount of gold created during the Ancient era is exactly 1,000,000 gold. All gold comes to the King as tribute from the countryside. The King has a plan to sell about 5,000 gold daily during the Ancient era, so that in the end of the era, half of the gold would belong to other characters. Of the first 150,000 gold, already 88,638 gold has been distributed to the characters other than the King. Before the first online-playable version,'' Version 2: Ancients'' (2014-11-16), 220,000 more gold will come into existence. The King has a plan to auction it out twice per real-week in 7 auctions that consist of 10 lots of 1,000 gold each. The auctions will be announced in the game thread. The reserve price in each auction will be 20% lower than the realized price in the last auction. The King also operates an ingame CKG/(monerito) market where it is possible to directly exchange amounts up to 500 gold both ways. (This is ingame items only.) From ''Version 2: Ancients (2014-11-16), also the initial sales of gold will happen ingame, as there will no more be the requirement to own gold before entering the game.'' From ''Version 4: Economy (2015-1-18), gold is created to the players of the game regardless of level or possessions, roughly in proportion'' to their time spent online (inactivity does not count, and actual receiving of the gold requires solving of a captcha). Approximately $0.025 worth of gold will be created per hour played. ' Management Administrators keep a database recording the gold balance of the characters. There are no restrictions on the transfer of gold between characters, and no administration fee. To initiate the transfer, inform the administrator (currently: HM The King). '''The minimum balance of gold every character must continuously have, is 1,000 gold. This requirement will be abolished in Version 2: Ancients and may be lowered (but not raised) even before. There is currently no intention to lower it, because the number of characters in the game is 7 days ahead of target. Dividends Gold is an income-producing asset, regardless of the form how the character chooses to keep it (in coins, jewelry, clothes, roofplates, ...). The dividend is game-biennial (every 2 years; in real-time it means: once per day in Ancient era, once per every 24 days from Version 4: Economy). In the Ancient era the income is in the form of stone; from Economy ''onwards, it will be a share of the Town council surplus. The dividend is regressive = you get less dividend per gold if you own more. (This is due to inefficiencies in managing a large organization). Expressed in another way: the generation of 'S', the amount of new stone you receive per real-day, as a function of 'G', the amount of gold you have: '''The dividend table will not be changed, it is in force during the whole Ancient era, after which gold will no more generate dividends in' stone. The last stone will be generated in A.D. 1600, according to the final gold balances at the close of the Ancient era.' '''''The town council surplus from Version 4: Economy onwards, will not be regressive but prorated. Also from then on, the nobles (who now got less stone per gold) will be awarded fiefs (rights to tax the countryside), whereas the commoners (who now got more stone per gold) need to get to work.'' The King does not intend to reward characters for accumulating gold, because it rewards itself. Rather, giving gold is a way for the King to reward characters. Stone Nature and uses One Stone represents 10 kg of building quality stone. This is the smallest unit of stone and no fractional stone exists. Stone is used for building walls, houses, and other structures, and for paving streets. Building from anything else except stone becomes possible in Version 4: Economy the earliest.'' '' Stone is practically indestructible with a very high recovery rate: in a typical deconstruction of a stone structure, 90% of the original stone is still usable. Stone cannot be stolen, and is therefore safe regardless of quantity owned. Creation In the Ancient era, stone is created as a dividend stream for gold holders. Owning gold yields stone income every day. In addition, it is possible to buy stone from peasants for 100 m/stone. Stone may only be bought in connection of completing a building project. '''The price will be revised down if both of the following happen: 1) number of characters in the gameworld exceeds the projected growth, and 2) XMR value increases. It cannot be revised up. Otherwise the price will stay during the Ancient era, after which stone will be generated by other methods. The proceeds from buying stone go 50% to the labor pool, 50% to the Town council. From ''Version 4: Economy, stone will be generated by quarrying it inside the city as a business.'' Management Administrators keep a database recording the stone balance of the characters. There are no restrictions on the transfer of stone between characters, and no administration fee. To initiate the transfer, inform the administrator (currently: HM The King). Character Basics A player is only entitled to one character. Upon registration, the player must give the character stats of age, sex, nickname and title. The proper titles available will depend on the character level. Also age depends on the level so that a higher level player will also have to be older than 15 years, which technically is the minimum age in the game. Since the game resources are not yet gathered to any single place (the game website will only start functioning in Version 2: Ancients, which is still about a real-month away), it is good also to supply some contact information. In the future versions of the game, the characters will have many real-world like traits, which will be added to the same characters that started play as Ancients. An Ancient character may live to more than 200 years old, which obviously will never again be possible (never say never…). Levels Basics Each character has a level. There are 15 levels in total. It is not intended that the level system would be changed, except by adding the planned levels now left empty. The following levels are opened for play. The highest level a character can currently attain by his own right is L12 - Duke. The highest level the King can promote a character is L12 - Duke. The highest level the Town council can promote a character is L6 - Master. In the listing below, the percentages give the idea of the characters' relative power (they are the labor pool distribution coefficients, for non-resident, temporary and full resident). Royalty L15 King: 350% - 925% - 1,500% Nobility L12 Duke: 300% - 775% - 1,250% L11 Marquess: 250% - 625% - 1,000% L10 Earl: 200% - 475% - 750% L9 Baron: 150% - 325% - 500% L8 Knight: 100% - n/a - 300% Commoners L7 Wizard: 150% - n/a - 600% L6 Master: 125% - n/a - 400% L5 Expert: 100% - n/a - 250% L4 Novice: 75% - n/a - 150% L3 Freeman: 50% - n/a - 100% L2 Stranger: 25% - n/a - n/a L1 Visitor: 0% - n/a - n/a Seniority Royalty is senior to nobility, which is senior to commoners. Higher level is senior to lower one, and inside a level, the earlier appointment date to the current level is senior to the later one. If these are the same, the earlier appointment date to the previous level is senior to the later one. Promotion Character's Right of being promoted 0-real-day-rule If the character registers in the game with minimum the following amount of gold, he has a right to be promoted as follows: The 0-real-day-rule only applies until Version 2: Ancients, because then it is no longer required (or possible) to register in the game already possessing gold. 10-real-day-rule If 10 real-days pass so that a character has continuously been in possession of a certain amount of gold, he has a right to be promoted as follows: 30-real-day-rule If 30 real-days pass so that a character has continuously been in possession of a certain amount of gold, he has a right to be promoted as follows: Amendments The minimum standard of living qualifiers from 1.0 are abolished. A character may rise to any level based on the gold holding alone, regardless of the standard of living. This will be taken into account in the labor pool coefficients so that a character without a proper dwelling earns significantly less than one with good living conditions. This may be changed according to game conditions. The table is already amended to take into account the time when there is no minimum gold rule. The character will not have to pay the Level Upgrade Fee. It will earliest be implemented in ''Version 4: Economy. Then it is planned that paying a sum of about 15 XMR is a requirement for promotion to levels 5, 6, and 9 each, for a total of 45 XMR for playing the complete game of 2 real-years with a character reaching nobility. Getting promoted to these levels, or higher, during the Ancient era, is a way to avoid the LUF.'' Administration's right to promote Noble promotion by the King The King has the right to promote nobles at his pleasure. The target percentage of nobles is 5% of the characters in the game at the stage when the game has 100,000 characters. The percentage of nobles is highest in the very beginning but becomes smaller when more people, who have less resources nor intention to become nobles, join in the online version of the game later on. Commoner promotion by the Town Council Town council has the right to promote commoners. During the Ancient era, this right will be used sparingly, with the main method of promotion being gold ownership. In ''Version 4: Economy ''and onwards, the commoner promotion will be determined by an algorithm as well, but the Town council retains the right to promote just in case. Ancient era promotion guidelines During the Ancient era, especially since Version 2: Ancients (2014-11-16), the following traits may lead to commoner promotion, in addition to the gold rule: * New characters start at L1. * After 5 hours online, they get promoted to L2 and start earning labor pool dividends (without any fixed costs). * Building or purchasing a house is an immediate promotion (and requirement, if gold holding threshold is not met) to L3. * Owning a house of 18+ sqm for 20 years, to L4. * Owning a house of 36+ sqm for 20 years, to L5. * Owning a house of 70+ sqm for 20 years, to L6 (the house increases the level by one, and the 20 years is reset at every increase) * Every character that is 60 years old is promoted L4, for 120 years, L5. * Getting L7: Wizard is very difficult and is reserved for special cases. * Game administrators can easily be Knighted (L8). * The promotion from L6 is typically directly to L9 because of gold, or because the King feels that this character is a pillar of society and good example to others, and he wants to tie him closer to the hierarchy of the Kingdom. * As regards promotion to higher Noble levels, the rule is that there should be 1 Duke per 5 Marquesses, 1 Marquess per 4 Earls and 1 Earl per 2 Barons. There are higher levels than Duke existing, but not available for play at present. The ingame deeds, especially magnanimity, play a great role in further promotion. Economy era promotion guidelines A rough guideline for promotion in the future (''Economy) is the following:'' L3 Freeman - any character who is at least 15 years old, is not a stranger (has an address in the city) and supports himself. L4 Novice - a character who is at least 20 years old, and has attained Novice skill level in any trade (or similar qualification). L5 Expert - a character who is at least 30 years old, and has attained Expert skill level in any trade (or similar qualification), obeys the law and owns a house. L6 Master - a character who is at least 40 years old, and has attained Master skill level in any trade (or similar qualification), and lives an exemplary life. Countryside At present, countryside is reduced to: - stone stream to the gold owners (nearer countryside) - gold stream to the King (further countryside). In ''Version 4: Economy, the gold stream will end. The stone stream will be replaced with food stream that are collected as taxes from the farmers and distributed among nobles and the King.'' City Borough The city consists of a number of Boroughs (currently: 1, and it is expected that maximum 1 other will be opened during the Ancient era). The boroughs are located near each other but not immediately connecting. A borough is 450x300 meters in size. Chapelry One borough is subdivided into 9 chapelries (3x3 of them in a borough). This is the area that will fit into the city view screen in the coming mobile version. '' Quadrat A Quadrat (q) is a square of 10x10 meters. Each Chapelry has 10x15 = 150 quadrats. It is the smallest unit of land that can form or be part of a Lot. Lot A lot is a continuous area of one or more quadrats, belonging to the same owner, inside one chapelry. The real estate registry, and therefore trades, are made by lot, which includes everything built on it. Building A Building must fit into one lot (adjoining buildings are allowed only according to administrator decision). It has a building year and several parameters. Apartment An Apartment is a part of the building that has one or more Rooms, so that they are connected with each other by doors, and there is a door leading out (to a space connected to a public road via a route not requiring going to another apartment) from at least one of the rooms. The rental contracts are made by apartment. Room An area enclosed by wall and ceiling and having a door. Living rooms are good to have a window also. Outside spaces such as gardens of the house are also technically treated as rooms. ''In the later versions of the game, a room is the place where characters are located, and the characters in the same room can converse with each other. '' City map and Building City Map Introduction Initially, the King has built city walls around two chapelries (C and N), made a gate in each of the 4 directions, and allocated the road network in the walled area (not paved yet due to the lack of stone). The area enclosed by walls is divided to 4 zones. King's zone The King will build whatever he pleases in his zone. His plan is to dedicate the centermost area of the C chaperly to a public town square, the northern part of the C chapelry to his palace, and the large area in the N chapelry to King's Park, perhaps lined by pictoresque houses that would enclose the park, later in the game. Public buildings zone This zone is dedicated to public buildings. According to King's wishes, or proposals by the citizenry, public buildings will be erected here and the land is granted to them for free. The plans of buildings are ratified by the King before construction. The ownership of such buildings (that are often built with donated funds) is negotiable. Free market zone The land will be sold piecewise to the highest bidder in a series of auctions during the Ancient era. The building restrictions still apply. This may be very valuable land in the online version of the game, because the C chapelry is the starting point of the journey for non-residents. Palatial zone These 4 lots of 6-9 quadrats each, will be granted for free for building grand palaces that please the King's eye the most. The willing builders of the palaces should submit the plans to the King and take into account that areas inside the palaces might be reserved for commercial activities, meeting halls, luxury rental units, etc. The palace should be a functional entity, designed from a commercial point-of-view. The palaces will become the builder's property. The King decides which designs to accept, but tries to refrain from favoritism (that he otherwise keenly practices for practical reasons). Nobles and commoners also have the same chance. It has to be understood that the likely total cost for a winning design reaches 300+ XMR though, making it a risky endeavour if profit is sought. Land grant zone The King's policy is that everyone would have a possibility to build a house without excessive land cost. Therefore, the land in the land grant zone is given out for free to houses that meet the minimum efficiency ('''e = floor area : land area) and luxury% regulations of the subzones. One house per character is allowed to be built on this free land, first come first served. It will be possible to enlarge the house later, but the size of the lot will be determined by the initial building. There are 36 lots in total in this area, and it is possible that these will be enough for the remainder of the Most Ancient time (until online play opens in 3 weeks). Haw The Nobles (Barons or higher) created in the ancient time are entitled to have a Haw in the town area. The significance of a haw is that there are: * No building restrictions (except the ones dictated by the rules - physical limits and height limit) - and the property tax (instituted in Economy or later) is waived. * The haws are inside a created borough, but (may be) outside of the city walled area. They need therefore to be walled at the expense of the owner. The King grants the haws at the noble's request. One noble is entitled to one Haw, and it must be walled on the gameyear it is granted, by a wall minimum 3 m high. If it is adjoining a wall minimum 3 m high, that side need not be walled. The sizes of haws that the King is bound to offer, according to the level of the character (the latter may settle for a smaller haw to reduce expenses, but may regret it later): * Duke = 50 q * Marquess = 24 q * Earl = 12 q * Baron = 6 q In practice it is possible to get even a much larger haw, especially if: * The character is senior in his level - The land is located further away from the current centre - The character has lots of stone with which not only to build the wall but also the palace inside. * The haw may not be enlarged later, even if the character gains wealth and/or is promoted. The buildings inside may be constructed one at a time. Editor The City map and Building editor are in Game online resources (last chapter). Land speculation notes It is not intended that the building land itself is a limited resource. However, centrally located, Ancient, or nicely developed land will command a much higher price than partially developed boroughs. The city will expand to every direction from the initial borough. The minimum price of land in the aftermarket can be derived from the public infrastructure (perimeter wall and roads). In the Ancient era, it is forbidden to build in any spaces that are not enclosed by a wall at least 3 meters high and 1 meter thick. If we consider that a chapelry (150 q) is walled around its outer perimeter with a wall, and 50 q of its area consists of roads or is reserved for the future public buildings, the money expended on this development, depending on the exact quality of the wall, makes the building land worth 2-3.5 XMR per quadrat. In the later game when things get pacified, there will no longer be the requirement to build walls, they might in fact get torn down for resources. Building planning notes This is moved online. Administration Town Council The Town Council is the highest administrating body of the game. It is formed as follows: The number of seats in the Town council depends on how much gold there is in the game: and so on, doubling the gold leads to one more seat existing in the council. Seats will be filled with willing candidates that have the highest amount of gold backing them. Elections are periodical. The members of the Town council are called Councillors, who select a Mayor among them. Town council has the authority to decide the rules of the game. "He who has the gold, makes the rules." Version 6: Administration'' is about to give self-rule and taxing rights to the boroughs. '' Town council is responsible for the costs of development of the game. King is responsible for the shortfall that is expected to happen in the early times with a small number of characters. King King's privileges are: # Receives the initial gold. # Receives the top crop of the land's produce (from Version 4: Economy onwards). # Initially owns (as a fief at least) the land in the Old Duchy (the city area and immediate surroundings) # Appoints the nobles. # May grant titles etc. Administrator Administrator refers to any person, program, or character that is administering the game functions. Labor pool Labor pool is an account of XMR. It receives income from player actions. The largest source of income by far is building labor, which roughly accounts for 40% of the cost of a building. Each real-day, 20% of the labor pool is distributed to characters in proportion to their efficiencies. The efficiency depends on the level as follows (non-resident, temporary and full resident): In ''Version 4: Economy, the labor pool will be divided to pools for different types of labor. The transitional funds will continue to belong to the laborers, but most of the nobles will not work any more, leading to a relative increase in the wages of the commoners.'' Badges, Medals, and Orders In later versions, many more ways of acknowledging noteworthy characters will be instituted. '' The Ancient Order of the King The Ancient Order of the King (AOK) is a monarchic chivalric order established in 1418, with a limited membership of 24 characters. The membership is hereditary (exact rules on how this happens, will be introduced in ''Version 7: Family and Lineage). Therefore, after reaching the maximum number of members, new members can only be introduced in the rare case of an existing member is displumed (stripped of the honor due to grave offences) or if he dies childless (effectively discontinues playing the game). The reigning King is the Grandmaster of the order (AOK-GM). Other ranks are: * Commander (AOK-C), minimum level L11 Marquis * Sergeant (AOK-S), minimum level L10 Earl * Knight (AOK-K), minimum level L8 Knight. The award of AOK is accompanied by gifts from the King. The Medal of the Game The Medal of the Game (MG) is awarded by the Town council for "Developing the Game". It is hereditary and can be awarded in 5 classes: # 1st class - may be awarded earliest when the game has 100,000 characters # 2nd class # 3rd class # 4th class # 5th class. Badges Badges are awarded automatically for ingame activities. They are not hereditary. * First builder (FBB) - only 20 awarded for first characters to build anything (one per char) * Castlebuilder (CB) - for building a castle (a building in min. 4 q lot enclosed by wall) * Homebuilder (HB) - when the character builds his first own house. Order of wear The King determines the order of wear of the honors, medals and badges, which currently is: # AOK-GM # MG-1 # AOK-C # MG-2 # AOK-S # MG-3 # AOK-K # MG-4 # MG-5 # FBB # CB # HB Administration and resources At present, the lead administrator of the game is the lead designer Risto Pietilä. His character, rpietila, is born in 1366 and is the King in the game, and currently the Mayor and only member of the Town council as well. The game thread in Bitcointalk (highly recommended read daily for active play): The game IRC channel is (will be moved to ingame "trollboxes" starting Version 2: Ancients): The Characters & Resources Database: The City Map & Buildings Database: The Building Editor: Disclaimer If you gain ingame value, in any way, no matter from whom in the game it is obtained from, and whether you feel you have just received it, or given something of value in return, please be reminded that such value is for entertainment purposes only. The potential resalability of game items, as we have heard does happen in games of this kind, is entirely a matter of voluntary secondary market provided by the players, which we cannot regulate, and are not responsible of. The game is a game. Games are invented to escape reality. Anything that happens in the game will have nothing to do with the agonizing aspects of the outside life, the very things that make us want to start a game and rule ourselves. If you are not willing to play, kindly please stay away, no matter who do you think you are, and what powers you have. Rather consider, whether your power is from Light, or. Thank you for reading!